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What, if Anything, is Wrong with Extreme Wealth?

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  • Ingrid Robeyns

Abstract

This paper proposes a view, called limitarianism, which suggests that there should be upper limits to the amount of income and wealth a person can hold. One argument for limitarianism is that superriches can undermine political equality. The other reason is that it would be better if the surplus money that superrich households have were to be used to meet unmet urgent needs and local and global collective action problems. A particular urgent case of the latter is climate change. The paper discusses one objection to limitarianism, and draws some conclusions for society, as well as for the human development paradigm and the capability approach.

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  • Ingrid Robeyns, 2019. "What, if Anything, is Wrong with Extreme Wealth?," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 251-266, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jhudca:v:20:y:2019:i:3:p:251-266
    DOI: 10.1080/19452829.2019.1633734
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    Cited by:

    1. Hecht, Katharina & Savage, Mike & Summers, Kate, 2022. "Why isn’t there more support for progressive taxation of wealth? A sociological contribution to the wider debate," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120793, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Martín Leites & Xavier Ramos & Cecilia Rodríguez & Vilá Joan, 2022. "Intergenerational mobility along the income distribution: estimates using administrative data for a developing country," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 22-05, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    3. De Rosa, Mauricio & Flores, Ignacio & Morgan, Marc, 2024. "More unequal or not as rich? Revisiting the Latin American exception," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    4. Gough, Ian & Horn, Stefan & Rogers, Charlotte & Tunstall, Rebecca, 2024. "Fair decarbonisation of housing in the UK: a sufficiency approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122477, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Jan Vandemoortele, 2021. "The open‐and‐shut case against inequality," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 39(1), pages 135-151, January.
    6. François, Martin & Mertens de Wilmars, Sybille & Maréchal, Kevin, 2023. "Unlocking the potential of income and wealth caps in post-growth transformation: A framework for improving policy design," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    7. Tania Burchardt & Abigail Davis & Ian Gough & Katharina Hecht & Donald Hirsch & Karen Rowlingson & Kate Summers, 2020. "Living on Different Incomes in London: Can public consensus identify a 'riches line'?," CASE Reports casereport127, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    8. Davis, Abigail & Hecht, Katharina Maria & Burchardt, Tania & Gough, Ian Roger & Hirsch, Donald & Rowlingson, Karen & Summers, Katherine Elizabeth, 2020. "Living on different incomes in London: can public consensus identify a 'riches line'?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121513, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Matías Strehl Pessina, 2022. "Sectores de altos ingresos y preferencias por redistribución," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 22-15, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    10. Bärnthaler, Richard & Gough, Ian, 2023. "Provisioning for sufficiency: envisaging production corridors," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119420, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Agni Kalfagianni & Simon Meisch, 2020. "Epistemological and ethical understandings of access and allocation in Earth System Governance: a 10-year review of the literature," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 203-221, June.
    12. Ingrid Robeyns & Vincent Buskens & Arnout Rijt & Nina Vergeldt & Tanja Lippe, 2021. "How Rich is Too Rich? Measuring the Riches Line," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 115-143, February.

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